Brave teen reveals why illness has inspired her to become a nurse

DESPITE the fact that she has spent so much time in hospital suffering from Crohn's Disease, 19-year-old Rachel Callaghan has already started a health studies course in Edinburgh and says she wants to spend her career caring for others.

Rachel Callaghan in her bed at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh.

AS Rachel Callaghan looks back over her teenage years, she knows she has spent more time living in hospital than she has living at home.

Diagnosed with digestive disorder Crohn’s Disease aged just 13, she has celebrated five of her last seven birthdays in hospital.

She has spent so much time with nurses and doctors, she describes them as her second family.

But Rachel, now 19 and an in-patient at Edinburgh’s Western General Hospital, says she’d love to spend more time in hospital…working there.

She has already started an HNC Health Studies course at Edinburgh College and says she’d love to become a nurse once she has finally got her debilitating illness into remission.

Rachel said: “People might presume that the last place I’d want to work would be in a hospital but being a patient for so long means I know what an amazing job nurses do.

“They have played such an important role in my life that I want to give something back.

“I know I can’t be a nurse while my Crohn’s is still so active but I’m hopeful that one day, we can get it into remission and finally be able to have a regular life and follow my dream.”

Rachel, of Galashiels, Selkirkshire, was diagnosed with Crohn’s after suffering months of stomach pain.

Her symptoms were initially dismissed as everything from growing pains to food poisoning.

She was finally admitted to hospital when she started to vomit blood and her parents Pauline and Jason were warned that she could die.

Rachel said: “My mum took me straight to Borders General Hospital where they kept me in for all sorts of tests.

“After two weeks, they were getting to the point of discharging me when suddenly I became very ill and couldn’t breathe.

“I was rushed in an ambulance to the Sick Kids Hospital in Edinburgh where my mum and dad were warned I could die.”

Tests revealed Rachel was suffering from chronic Crohn’s Disease, which had taken over much of her body.

The life-threatening condition causes inflammation and ulceration of the digestive system, affecting the body’s ability to digest food, absorb nutrients and eliminate waste.

While drug treatments and surgery can help stabilise the disease, there is currently no cure.

Helen Barrington

Rachel celebrates her 19th birthday in hospital.

Rachel said: “I had never heard of Crohn’s disease and neither had my parents.

“Because it had taken around six months for me to be diagnosed, the condition had slowly been getting worse which meant treating it was going to be harder.

“The main goal is to get it into remission and keep it in remission but so far, none of the medicine and treatments I have received have worked for me.

“There was one period, a few years ago, when it looked like it might have gone into remission and for three months, I was able to live like a normal teenager.

“But sadly it didn’t last and, all too quickly, I was back in hospital.

“We’ve not run out of options – there is a chance I might be given a new chemotherapy drug that Crohn’s experts hope might be successful in treating stubborn cases like mine.

“But, for now, I am hoping the medicines I currently take will do their job.”

Crohn’s is believed to affect one in every 650 people in the UK but Rachel says few people have an understanding of how serious the condition can be.

She is in constant pain and has to have five injections and take up to 50 tablets a days to help alleviate her symptoms. She also has a feeding tube to help her body get the vital nutrients she needs. She said: “When I tell people I have Crohn’s Disease a lot of people say, ‘Oh yeah, that’s like IBS. Do you get upset tummies?’

“It might sound harsh but comparing Irritable Bowel Syndrome to Crohn’s is like comparing a common cold to cancer. Upset stomachs are just a part of the illness.

“Crohn’s affects every organ in my body. I have nausea, diarrhoea, joint problems and I can have painful ulcers running all the way from my mouth, down through my stomach into my bowel and all the way down.

“I currently have a tube down my nose because my body is so malnourished, I can lose my hair and my immune system is so weak that picking up something like chicken pox could kill me.

“I have been in and out of intensive care so many times I have lost count.

“I spend more of my life in hospital than I do at home and, while I try my best not to think about what could happen, I know of two people my age who recently died as a result of their Crohn’s, which I know could happen to me.

“But most of the time, I try to stay as positive as possible that my condition will go into remission, or even that a cure may be just around the corner.”

While she waits for that day, Rachel has no intention of letting life pass her by.

Despite spending so much of her life in hospital, she tries to make the most of every minute she gets at home – spending precious time with Pauline, 41, and Jason, 43, and siblings Meghan, 15, and 17-year-old Liam.

But, like any teenager, she also loves going out with her mates.

She said: “I sit around in hospital so much that when I leave hospital, I like to get out and about.

“I love acting and drama and hanging out with my friends.

“I love going on nights out where I get to worry about what clothes I’m going to wear and if I’m going to meet a nice boy.

“I don’t have a wish list of crazy things I want to do – I just want to be a normal teenager.

“I was absent from school much more than I was there but I studied in hospital and managed to get good grades in my exams.

“I’ve just got my own flat in Glasgow and while I’m not able to go to university or start work yet like many of my friends, I do my best not to let it get me down.

“I might have Crohn’s Disease but I’m determined that it doesn’t have me.

“I’m certainly not the only person with this illness and I just have to keep believing that it can be fixed and that some day soon, I’ll finally be able to get on with living a normal life.”

Rachel is keen to do all she can to raise awareness of Crohn’s Disease and is fundraising for the charity Crohn’s and Colitis UK.

Later this year, the brave teen hopes to be well enough to take part in a tandem sky dive to raise vital funds for the charity.